BHUBANESWAR: In a giant leap in revenue augmentation, the collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Odisha crossed the budget estimate in last financial year reflecting the strength of the state economy in various sectors.
The GST collection was Rs 2,047.45 crore more than the budget estimate of around Rs 22,004 crore. The overall tax revenue collection in last fiscal was Rs 37,160.80 crore as compared to the estimate of Rs 35,831 crore in 2023-24. Though barring 2019-20 and 2021-22, the overall tax collection has surpassed the budget estimate in the rest three financial years, the growth has been phenomenal last fiscal.
The gross GST collection was the highest Rs 5,135.81 crore in February 2024, followed by Rs 5,109.33 crore last month, Rs 5,035.74 crore in April, Rs 4,408.27 crore in August, Rs 4,397.73 crore in May, Rs 4,379.97 crore in June, Rs 4,351.42 crore in December, Rs 4,295.08 crore in November and Rs 4,249.12 crore in September 2023.
Official sources attributed the landmark growth to the initiatives taken by the GST Commissionerate in creating a specific intelligence and analytics unit, which has proven to be the cynosure of all the revenue augmentation measures.
Intelligence generation and brainstorming on several key areas like return filing, ITC mismatch, sectoral analysis and IGST reversal have resulted in the record-breaking revenue collection for the department.
The tax officials have made significant recoveries through sectoral analysis of the evasion-prone areas including trade, transportation, mining and construction services.
A GST official said apart from the highest collections from mining and manufacturing sectors, a well-planned drive to ensure reversal of IGST credit, which was lying idle in the credit ledger of many taxpayers has resulted in over Rs 2,000 crore more GST revenue than the estimate.
“The achievement is significant because the surplus has been recorded despite a substantial shortfall in VAT collection. Analytics and use of online databases to detect cases of non reversal has also helped in boosting IGST collection. Overall tax revenue was Rs 1,329.57 crore more than that of the budget estimate,” he said.
However, there was a shortfall in VAT, entry tax and professional tax, which is an area of concern. The VAT collection was Rs 559 crore less than the estimate mainly due to drop in crude oil prices. Similarly, the deficit in entry tax and professional tax was Rs 82.9 crore and Rs 75.5 crore, respectively. Incidentally, collection of all three taxes was more than the estimate in previous five fiscals barring the VAT in 2019-20.